WHAT TIME IS IT?: Living Colour’s new...

WHAT TIME IS IT?: Living Colour’s new album, due at the end of the month, is titled “Time’s Up” and features a host of powerful new rock anthems, including “Pride,” “Love Rears Its Ugly Head,” “New Jack Theme” and “Information Overload.” But the song that will probably grab the most initial attention is “Elvis Is Dead,” which continues a fascinating Elvis-demythologizing process initiated by Public Enemy with “Fight the Power.” Explains Vernon Reid: “The song has a bit of humor in it, but there’s also my ambivalent feeling about this ‘King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ business. He was an important performer but the people around him capitalized on racial divisiveness, essentially saying ‘He sings like they do, but he’s one of us. ‘ . . . Who crowned him King--and did anyone ask Little Richard or Chuck Berry or Fats Domino?” Perhaps as a way of redressing old grievances, Reid asked Little Richard to do a rap segment of the song, whose lyrics go in part:

Elvis was a hero to most but that’s beside the point,

A black man taught him how to sing and then he was crowned king,

The pelvis of Elvis, too dangerous for the masses,

They cleaned him up and sent him to Vegas,

Now the masses are his slave, yes, even from the grave ...

I’ve got reason to believe we all won’t be received in Graceland.